The house that Mad Elena built

The architect Richard Neutra was was instrumental in introducing the International Style of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to the United States. A 1947 Time Magazine article named him second only to Frank Lloyd Wright in making an architectural mark on the United States. In 1949 he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine (read the cover story to find out why it's captioned Architect Richard Neutra, What will the Neighbors Think?). His renown residence - Lovell House - perches on a steep hill in Los Angeles and epitomizes his geometric and linear forms.

Neutra House is my homage to him and attempts to emulate his architectural lines. It is 35w x 38h and will hang in EBHQ's biannual show on April 10th and 11th - Voices in Cloth where I will be a white glove hostess at the show each morning from 10am to noon. If you're there, come and say hello.

Turning green

I am envious of artists with multiple design walls in a large studio. Look at Judy Martin's! Oooh! I covet such a gallery!

I have two design walls: main one 7x7 and another 5x5 that's a bit removed and used like a bulletin board. In the middle of attaching the sleeve to Neutra House, I want to take photos. Before I forget. Before it's too late. I must roll up the ribbon quilt out of the way first.

Hmm. This reminds me of another reason why I don't work concurrently on multiple projects. Not enough wall space. Well, not the entire story. True confession: I am a studio slob. My studio overflows with stuff; all horizontal surfaces covered. I am quite content as long as I have enough space to keep working and enough floor space to maneuver.

I was once obsessive about housekeeping. Somewhere along the line I picked up some of my ex's non-existent housekeeping habits. Now I am just as bad particularly with my own space.

Every so often, I do major clean up. But it's not enough. A total redesign and reorganization is what I really need. What's that story about a cobbler whose own children have no shoes?

Assessments

Since I'm about finished with a quilt, now is a good time to follow Kathy Loomis' advice. I assessed both Straight Talk and Neutra House. I won't bore you with details of my assessments. You must run through those questions for yourself. Since I am so much more a beginner than Kath, I added a few questions for myself.

One to the first part of her questions: What did I learn?

Here are three things I learned from Neutra House. (1) Even for straight stitches with a walking foot, gloves helped with handling the weight and bulk of a larger quilt. (2) Quilting was stressful with a deadline. This may get easier with experience, but the quilting loomed as such a large unknown for awhile. (3) I don't have the patience to hide all the start and stop ends even with a self-threading needle. Oh, hang the quilt police!

To her second section, two more: for my next quilt, What can I improve? and What can I try?

Next time my facings will net 1.5" wide which means I'll cut them 4" wide and use a .5" seam. The wider facing will provide a better hand hold for understitching. The .5" seam allows for grading and reducing bulk. And next time I will free motion quilt even straight lines to avoid starts and stops, confidence willing!

From doing this exercise I saw a relationship from the former to the latter. Approaches carry over from one to the other. And will likely carry forth to the next and evolve from there. I'm not working in a series. But this is a series of learning experiences.

9-day countdown

The guild depends on volunteers to put together their biannual Voices in Cloth. Members with a quilt in the show must volunteer 4 hours for the show.

Two years ago no quilt but I volunteered anyway as a white glove hostess. I touched the quilts, flipped over to backs, answered questions as best I could and got a chance to really look at every quilt. Despite the tired legs, a great experience. This year I will white glove again both mornings from 10am to noon.

Neutra House is not finished, but I'm not worried. Quilting is done; facing is 99% complete; sleeve is ready to be added;  finally attach the show label and it'd be ready. All small stuff I can finish in a couple of hours.

With my design wall free, I've put up the strip-pieced ribbon quilt. Do I dare think I can finish it before heading back the Crow Barn on May 8th? And develop motifs for the Sets & Variables workshops too?

Turning to leave my studio last night, my eyes caught the quilt and I was captivated by its colors. Magic moments like these keep me going.

Taxing time

Too bad skipping this is not an option. Two weeks ago, as soon as some necessary paperwork came in, I imposed a deadline by making an appointment with my accountant. Thanks to some prior cleanup of paperwork piles, I managed to pull together all documentation and numbers for the tax returns over the weekend. Then spent last night massaging them into my accountant's forms. In less than an hour this morning, he hashed out the numbers into returns and e-filed. Thank goodness it's done. Back to quilting.

Thank you, but no

Last night I returned a call from an EBHQ member. My first thought was duty assignment for Voices in Cloth the guild show in April. But that wasn't it. She wanted to know if I would run for the member-at-large position on the board.

I am extremely grateful to EBHQ for the workshops, books and show opportunities. Further thanks goes to them for my monthly get together with my Quilt Therapy group. In return I volunteer at the library before each monthly meeting and co-curated the last two local shows. Much as I would like to be more active, time is a luxury. I declined.

As Kathy Loomis advises, I must make more quilts to develop my own voice. To step up my quilt productivity, I must not stray off on tangents. To stay focused, I must eschew workshops and other activity that does not add to my knowledge base. I shall pursue art with near single-mindedness. I can do it. I just can't do it all.